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Monday, December 9, 2013

Top 10 Worst Album Covers of 2013

You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but should you judge an album on its cover? So grab a vomit bag, and lets get started! Remember... CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE (If you dare)

10: Miley Cyrus, "Bangerz"
Miley Cyrus' third studio album, despite having to endure through much criticism from her controversial performances, was not helped by it's "iOS 7 meets Neo-noir" cover. The image, which looks like it was created by Cyrus herself, incorporates a handful of beginner photoshop tutorials and roughly 'lassos' Cyrus into the frame. The cover, which neither matches the artist's 'fun personality' on stage or white colour scheme in her music videos, feels out of place and just plain awful.

9: Justin Timberlake, "The 20/20 Experience"
Ok I'm going to be a little lenient on this one considering the standard edition of the album (the first image) is actually pretty alright. However, with the addition of gradients on the deluxe editions and inverting the colours for the repackaged version, the cover does gradually earn itself a position on this list. I'm so sorry, but was it such a strain to use another image, or at least leave the original image alone?

8: Sky Ferreira, "Night Time, My Time"
After various push backs from her record label and poor sales from her lead singles, it was only time for the struggling alternative artist to take a leaf out of Miley Cyrus' book and use controversy to her advantage. The result? A Top 50 album and a moronic cover by a desperate artist. The cover, which Ferreira described as herself "looking demented in the shower while 'showing off' her left nipple" no question earns itself a position on this list.

7: Justin Bieber, "Music Mondays"
In October of this year, Justin Bieber decided to start a "Music Monday" campaign, where he would release a single every monday for ten weeks. The result? Ten dreadful covers and dare I say, ten dreadful songs. Although some covers, were decent, many were overly simplistic, and looked like they were drawn by a three year old.

5: James Blake, "Overgrown"
While searching for horrible album covers on the internet, their were many reoccurring covers, one of them being James Blake's newest album, "Overgrown". The cover, which features the British singer crossing his arms behind a waterfall has experienced criticism, with some saying that he looks like he's throwing a tantrum. The cover itself has been parodyed many times throughout the year.

6: Alunageorge, "Body Music"
So you have the bands lead singer, trapped into what looks like a giant kaleidoscope, and the other band member looking frustrated in the background. Also the person who photoshopped the image made her right foot very disproportionate to the rest of her body; it looks humungous!

4: David Bowie, "The Next Day"
The cover which features the singer's 1977 album over, "Heroes," but with the title scribbled out and the singer's face covered by a white box. Jonathan Barnbrook, the designer behind the cover, stated that "obscuring the "Heroes" cover with the white square represents the spirit of great pop or rock music which is ‘of the moment’, forgetting or obliterating the past." For me, the cover represents utter laziness.

3: Ke$ha, "Warrior"
Ok, so I'm a little cheating on this one, the album came out in late November last year, all well, close enough. Like Cyrus and Timberlake, Kesha's second album, was ruined by the idiot behind the photoshopping. The actual image was not even cropped properly in the frame, the sky was roughly cut out and oddly filled with solid green, the grass coloured purple and a stupid preset lens flare was added to the mountains. Sorry, but are these artists photoshopping their own images?

2: Action Bronson, "SAAAB Stories"
Despite critical acclaim, Bronton's newest EP was disgraced by its very unusual cover. In the cover, one woman is what looks to be vomiting in the toilet, while another is grabbing toilet paper in the bath. Still, you've probably never heard of the american rapper since now, so perhaps the joke is on us?

1: Jan Driver, "Thunderbill Vol. 1"
I don't even know where to begin for this one.